The Worst Witch 2017 - Behind my daughter's back
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: Julie Hubble sees a lot more of Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom than she would care to have at the best of times. Here is a typical meeting between the teachers and a mother who just wants to be left in peace with her daughter... Too bad she won't get much luck.


I don't own the Worst Witch. Anyway, my friend Hallow Sisters On My Mind and I have come up with the theory Julie sees more of Cackle and Hardbroom than she'd care to. Here is a typical meeting, and its not a good one.

Please tell me what you think.

* * *

"Behind my Daughter's Back."

Julie Hubble had learnt the hard way over the last few years not to expect a quiet day, but she had also learnt that not every day was going to be one where she would be confronted with them. While she was more than happy Mildred was studying magic - most of the time, though she was often worried that the girls at the school seemed to treat Mildred like she was a leper even though she had magical ancestry, though this was not heard about until her second year.

In some ways, Julie had wondered if the real-life magical world was similar to the fictional world of Harry Potter. Truthfully Julie was not really a fan of the novels up to Book Four, and even then she had question marks appearing over her head over some of the content, specifically the parts where people's lives were under threat from wizards like Lord Voldemort.

While the real-world version of the magical world was not as insular and as isolationist as the one JK Rowling had dreamt up, there were dozens of people who believed Mildred should not be there simply because of her background. Julie sighed, she'd had horrible nights thinking about her daughter being lonely because there were no other witches at the school who came from non-magical families, and she wished Cackles was an ordinary day school, that way Mildred would be with her always.

As she checked her watch, Julie was relieved when she saw she had three hours spare before work, so she got ready. She had just thrown her coat on a chair carelessly in preparation to leave before she picked up the plate and the cup she'd had during lunch, and she took them to the kitchen and dumped the utensils in the sink, before she was about to get her handbag ready before she felt a familiar tingly sensation in her chest…

Only to find herself in the all-too-familiar office at Cackle's Academy when her eyes registered the general darkness of the room, and she blinked when she saw Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom. Oh, joy...

Julie groaned when she took them in, the familiar pink-red sweater Miss Cackle was wearing was probably the only too bit of colour in the office, whereas Miss Hardbroom's tall, thin frame dressed in that black dress made her look like a stick insect that blended into the darkness of the room like a soldier of the SAS wearing camouflage fatigues.

"What now?" she asked, not even bothering to be polite; why should she be polite and courteous to her when they never listened to her?

"Hello Miss Hubble," Miss Cackle greeted, ignoring the not really polite tone from the visibly irritated woman whom they'd transported into the office. "We wish to speak to you about Mildred."

Julie sighed, resigning herself to the inevitable._ "No shit, Sherlock, and here I thought you were going to tell me the Easter Bunny and Father Christmas had come to the school ahead of schedule!'_ she thought sarcastically. She made a pointed show of checking her watch, though she knew the teachers believed they were above such things as other people's jobs, though whether or not they had lost their IQs over the years, or breathed in potion fumes as Mildred had often said in irritation towards these two idiots, Julie did not know.

"Alright, but make it quick," she said, "I have work. You know - the job I have where I help people, and pay the bills, but also pay the school fees?" she looked at them pointedly, making it clear to them both she considered this meeting to be a complete and utter waste of time, but also because if they wanted more cash out of her after already conning her out of a small fortune, and she did consider them con artists because they constantly put Mildred down and caused her problems while waiting for her to throw out her hands and say, "I'm done! I'm not learning anything, I'm going home!"

Miss Cackle's face tightened at the mention of the school fees, but she spoke quickly before Miss Hardbroom did, "Miss Hubble, we will try not to keep you," she said as diplomatically as she could.

Julie didn't believe her. "What's Mildred done?" she asked bluntly, just wanting to get this over and done with.

However, Miss Cackle was not impressed with her attitude. "Miss Hubble, there is truly no need for this demeanour-," she began, but unfortunately Miss Hardbroom couldn't help herself. "What else can you expect, Ada," she began with a glance at her older colleague, "from a non-magical woman who doesn't understand-,"

"And who truly doesn't care?" Julie finished with a sneer, deciding enough was enough. "Get to the point, please. What is it Mildred has done wrong now?"

Miss Cackle sighed under her breath, but not before she shot an admonishing glare at her deputy, wishing Hecate would just be tactful for once instead of constantly speaking her head off. "Very well. Mildred -,"

"Her work is awful, and her grades are the worst I have ever seen, and she doesn't try even though she has a magical lineage," Miss Hardbroom spoke over Miss Cackle, "and she constantly interferes in affairs which are none of her concern."

Julie would have been amused by the annoyance Miss Cackle sent at her deputy for interrupting her if she wasn't too busy rolling her eyes in contempt. She wasn't surprised in the least Hardbroom and Cackle had dragged her in to discuss Mildred's grades and that little snipe about magical lineage entered the equation.

It was an insult and Julie knew it, an insinuation that Mildred should be trying to be a witch and make her ancestors proud, but truthfully Julie didn't care about what her ancestors wanted. She didn't give a monkeys if they'd have agreed with Hardbroom about Mildred. They were gone, they didn't exist anymore.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," Julie began in a sweet tone, "but when you said Mildred was interfering in affairs that were none of her concern, do you mean the time where she risked her life to stop Agatha Cackle while you two were indisposed, or the time where she realised Mrs Hallow's petition was a fake, and nearly got you kicked out, Miss Cackle?"

Both teachers were astonished, and Julie had to hide the urge to laugh. Oh, she loved putting these two in their place, and the best thing was it was always Miss Hardbroom who provided her with the cues to make it happen. Her moment of delight was brief and fleeting, however, much to her annoyance, when Miss Cackle started to speak, "No-one is denying that Mildred hasn't been helpful, Miss Hubble," she began, "however if you could please try to make her curb those tendencies we will appreciate it."

Julie raised an eyebrow, wondering what the purpose of that little idea was. Truth be told Mildred had told her she wasn't going to try to poke her nose into anything this year, mostly because she wanted to be left alone and decided to make the teachers do their jobs for a change instead of leaving everything up to her. Mildred was so incredibly frustrated by that, especially after the Founding Stone mess.

"Whatever you say, Miss Cackle," Julie said in her "I couldn't give a toss" voice, though she definitely planned on telling her daughter about this later.

Miss Hardbroom shot her a look, clearly sensing the indifference. "You don't seem to care," she had no hesitation in pointing it out.

"You've both gone behind my daughter's back with these points before, but the most amazing thing about it is you do it every time Mildred has done something to help you; you don't seem to care about the fact she has helped, but that doesn't mean you have to like how she did it," Julie stated bluntly before she remembered Miss Hardbroom's last complaint; she didn't know why she had to bother, the two women had shoved it down her throat so many times in the past anyway she didn't need to hear the complaints again.

"Oh, yeah, and concerning her grades and her work," she carried on, deciding not to bother bringing up the part of her and Mildred's magical ancestry; it wasn't relevant, and besides it sounded more like an excuse to badly motivate Mildred more than anything else, "what do you plan to do about it?"

"You must make Mildred try to focus," Miss Cackle said, leaning forward in her seat, but Julie sighed and closed her eyes. _How many times have I heard this?_ she thought to herself irritably while she tried desperately to muster her patience.

"Miss Cackle, I have given you suggestions of what to do to make Mildred succeed in learning and succeeding in becoming a witch. I have suggested that a teacher spends half an hour of their time actually teaching my daughter instead of writing her off as a lost cause - don't try to deny that's what happens - and they don't have to spend hours and hours of their time doing so. You instantly refused. You said you couldn't hold the rest of the class back for just one student, completely missing the point I might add about my idea since this would be arranged at certain intervals so classes would not be interrupted. I suggested you bring in a tutor, but you instantly threw that out as well. I don't know what else you expect, and on top of that, you keep on dragging me into this office, expecting me to solve your problems. How many times do you need to be told I am not a witch?"

That was particularly annoying in Julie's mind, not to mention Mildred's who couldn't understand why Cackle and Hardbroom kept insisting her mother who had no magic of her own help her focus. It didn't make any sense.

"It is because in our society," Hardbroom began in her usual cold voice, and Julie didn't need to look at the woman to see the contempt was written all over it, contempt for her and for having to tell her about something of their almighty culture, "the mothers are responsible for their witch daughters, while the sons are educated by their wizard fathers."

Julie closed her eyes and groaned while she tried to rein in her frustration. _I'm not going to win this, am I? Mildred had the right idea about not going to Pentangles; at least here I know where these two stand when it comes to Mildred._

When she had heard Mildred had been offered a scholarship, both Julie and Mildred had wondered about Miss Pentangle's motivations for the offer. To both Hubble's, it sounded a bit too good to be true. On top of that, they had become convinced trial Miss Cackle had given Mildred after that business before the first year was nothing more than a con to make the school look good. It had been a bitter pill for Mildred to swallow, but it was true. Mildred had become cynical of Cackles - while she enjoyed being here, most of the time, she was not blind and she certainly was not stupid about the way the teachers viewed her; the way she had been called "The Worst Witch" had sent Julie in a rage, but Mildred had told her it wouldn't make any difference if she personally came to the school to give HB a piece of her mind.

Mildred knew it wouldn't work. Hardbroom was not the easiest person to like, and besides the woman had given her many problems over the last couple of years. Julie knew how it had depressed her child when she had been given that cruel and unthinkingly careless nickname, but nowadays Mildred didn't care. Julie knew the real reason why Mildred was still here. She was doing it to spite her detractors and to also rediscover everything the Hubble family had lost in the past, though Julie had no idea how long it would take.

In short, Mildred had developed an innate distrust of magical teachers barring a few at the school and even they were more or less incapable and out of their depth in helping Mildred grow as a witch. That was the reason why Mildred didn't know what to do or even what to think about Miss Pentangles offer, but as she would later tell Julie at the first opportunity, she had been tempted to transfer to Pentangles, but she decided against it because she didn't want to go through the same misery there as she was at Cackles.

Julie had to wonder if Mildred had become cynical too quickly, but she had to admit her daughter had a good point there that the risk was too great.

Besides, while she disliked the thought of her daughter being cynical, she had to admit it would have happened sooner or later since the world was not a fair place to live.

"Yes, and according to you I am a bad mother," Julie snapped back, starting to lose her temper at the implication.

"That is not what Miss Hardbroom meant," Miss Cackle instantly stepped in with her diplomatic act, but Julie was not in the mood to be pandered to.

She couldn't help it, but Julie snorted in disbelief and disgust at the potion mistress' arrogance. She had no doubt in her mind the darker woman of the gruesome twosome in this office meant every word she had just said.

"I never grew up with magic. I never learnt how to brew a potion, or how to ride a broomstick. So why do you keep on wasting not just my time but your own telling me to teach Mildred how to be a witch? I don't understand the logic," she said.

"We want Mildred to succeed-," Miss Cackle began.

"If that's true then start to teach her witchcraft, stop dragging me in here!" Julie interrupted, unable to help herself, but she was too angry to care.

Miss Cackle looked downright put out at being interrupted like that, but the mother bear in Julie was beyond caring. "Miss Hubble, I had hoped we could deal with this situation in a mature way, however, you seem determined to start an argument."

Julie said nothing. She had heard all of this before. Many times, in fact. The best thing to do was just to ignore what the witches were saying. They weren't going to listen to her, and besides each time she was dragged into this fucked up office, they didn't say anything meaningful or helpful. Julie had learnt the hard way not to expect anything from these two. But what she was completely unable to work out was why they went to all of this trouble to supposedly help Mildred when they had no intention of it, but to make her fail the stupid trial. To be honest, there were times she really did not want to know.

Mildred didn't either. All Julie knew was how off-putting it probably was to her daughter to be told day in and day out how useless she was simply because she never knew about the witching world as a toddler growing up, but Julie had no idea how her daughter was able to cope. But she knew Mildred did manage to get through, but what annoyed her the most was how the teachers used Mildred to clean up messes so they could look good, but unfortunately, there was nothing she could do about it.

Julie's mind returned to the present when she heard Miss Cackle's exasperated voice, but before she could say anything she found herself whisked back to her flat. Julie sighed with relief and checked the time. She had to finish getting ready for work. The whole meeting had taken just twenty minutes, but it had felt more like twenty months. As she grabbed the rest of her things, Julie left her flat and locked the door.

As she started the drive to the hospital, Julie's mind was more focused on the road, but she let herself think about the meeting she'd just had with Cackle and Hardbroom. She wondered how long it would be before they brought her back to talk about Mildred behind her back.

* * *

Until the next time...


End file.
